Franklin County High Point Trip Report

Seward Mountain

Date: July 9, 2001
Author: David Galvin

I climbed Seward Mountain along with Seymour, Donaldson and Emmons Mountains, which are "only" ADK 46rs. This proved an exercise in endurance, entomology and mud. We've been having a cool, wet summer. In the Adirondacks, this means mud - black, oozing, slick, adhesive glop from which thousands of biting insects appear to emerge like magic. I identified black flies, sand flies, deer flies, horse flies and at least twenty different varieties of mosquito feeding on me during this hike. Apparently, I was the only warm-blooded animal within five miles that had not already been exsanguinated. I barely made it back out, and spent the night in an expensive little motel room in Saranac Lake, scratching my wounds.